Anything Real
by Lady Bluesummers
Summary: Around two years after the brothers' clash, Millie returns with a son, and a young woman shows up, and takes care of Knives. Weird stuff happens, and various dead people come back to life. PG-13.


Disclaimer: I=Do not own Trigun.

People...people...I live in the middle of nowhere. You know, the countryside? With trees? Kind of like... The opposite of Gunsmoke? Yeah, green trees, green grass, green...stuff. So some characters in this are going to have gramatically incorrect speech. Those are NOT errors, man. xP

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Hey, I already KNOW this is gonna be a little awkward. I haven't written fanfiction in a little over half a year, and it burns me to admit it. Life has gone on, and I'm finally able to sit down and write something that isn't an essay. Summer's coming up, so I'll be able to make up maybe double for what I've not done in the past seven months. Ok, not double...but I'll try my best to be the best author-person I can. It may not be good enough for some, but as long as I enjoy doing it and reading other people's work, that's good enough for me. I really appriciate feedback, so always review. Please? And thanks. =D

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**Chapter One: The Beginning**

"All humans will DIE, you hear me? DIE! I WILL KILL YOU ALL!"

So far the day wasn't going as bad as it normally was. Normally, Knives would weave an impressive tapestry of obscenities that could be heard through the next two walls. The plant struggled in his chains in the comfy chair in the living room of a house Millie and Meryl bought after Vash came back with Knives and the town's water supply came up to a record 900 percent.

Meryl tried her best to at least calm Knives down. "Mr. Knives, I'm sure you hate us but Millie and I have nothing agaisnt you and we're only trying our best to--" Knives cut the short woman off. "Your pathetic BEST, as you call it, is sickening! You all deserve to die!!" Meryl sighed. These sessions had been going on for a year and a half, and still no headway. In the plant's sleep, whoever was on watch could hear him muttering "Kill them kill them must kill must kill them. Kill the humans must kill kill them all must kill..." Meryl and Millie were both off watch duty, though. After several nights watching Knives, the insurance girls had recurring nightmares for several weeks. Vash decided to take over the night watch; however, it was against Meryl's wishes. He insisted anyway. And besides, he said, it gave him time to think about stuff. Meryl didn't really understand that, but she shrugged it off for once. "If you're this long with Vash," she wrote in her private journal once, "You tend to just leave certain mysteries and things that pop up out of nowhere alone; that kind of thing happens around this man, always."

The short woman decided to finish the session early today. They weren't getting anywhere, and she still had work to do. Knives kept mumbling after seeing Meryl didn't honestly care at the moment. Maybe they DID get somewhere with him after all. She gently unchained him from the chair; that still left the straight jacket, but that was almost a 24-hour thing, and by now she ignored the strangeness of it. The plant let himself be steered out of the room. _Yes_, Meryl thought, _Maybe we ARE getting some headway. We DO know he's not stupid. Maybe he's just seeing reason._ A voice thrashed through Meryl's head and made her jump. _**Being smart and knowing reason are different things, short one. Headway? I am no animal, unlike your disgusting race.**_ _Get out of there!_ Meryl thought back at Knives. She turned her head and glared at him, and he glared back with a look that could freeze a snowstorm (if there had been such a thing on Gunsmoke). Knives had been doing that, reading eveeryone's thoughts. It made her shiver, but she supressed it and tried to think of other things. He didn't seem as angry today. That was good.

And Millie. She was away...had been for so long... Meryl wondered when the two would arrive again soon. Meryl wanted to see her best friend's son, Nicholas D. Wolfwood Jr. It suprised Meryl to learn that certain...things...happened in the time between when they first met the strange priest to when he died. Still a painful memory, but they had his sunglasses and that cross thing. _If that man carried so much mercy to burden, why was he torn from us, and Millie?_ Meryl continued to steer Knives down the hallway. The plant was unusually silent, but Meryl did not notice his behavior for once, so deep in thought she was about the past.

They walked on, both silent, while unbeknownst to Meryl, Knives listened to her steady stream of thoughts with mild curiosity. He had never been this quiet in mind for a very, very long time. It felt nice.

Carlinya Stephes shrugged her pack around her shoulder while walking into the town after getting off the bus. This place apparently had a working well with pumped water. Living here might not be so bad.

Several hours later when the lower of the suns was its own height above the sandy horizon, Stephes stumbled into a bar. There were no real jobs available now since everyone got their money off the water they sold, and no one really wanted work. There was no room in the hotel either, since the old building had collapsed not long ago, and the remaining rooms were taken.

Apparently if not controlled, the water would bubble up into a vast fountain and spray the town. Some said it was the first real rain Gunsmoke had ever seen; rumors of the town had spread for miles and miles, but since everyone had been living in a desert so long they were too lazy to get off their butts and live where there was plenty of refreshment.

Stephes sat at the bar and let her pack fall to the floor with a thud. It wasn't very big. No, not at all. The barkeep came up and asked what she wanted. "I'll have um...a cup of tea." The man nodded and shuffled around with the glass-windowed shelves behind the counter, and poured Stephes a murky substance that looked like dirt in water. It was in a shot glass. She glanced up at the man, who stratched his bald head. "Sorry miss, ain't got nothin' else today. The last right n' proper cups were shot last week when some bandits blew inta town. Good ol' Mr. Vash took care o' them, though. Ain't that right Vash?" The old man nodded with familiarity at a blonde man sitting at the end of the bar. Stephes' gulp of tea sprayed all over the floor and earned a stern look from one of the waitresses and several of the people near the vicinity. The blonde man--Vash--looked up. "Oh yeah? Ha-ha, it was nothing, don't worry about it old man!" The two men laughed like old friends.

Stephes poked the barkeep. "S'cuse me..sir?" "Yes'm?" "You didn't...by chance...put anything...er...um...intoxicating in my tea, did you? I'm pretty SURE this is tea." The barkeep laughed. "Oh no. Nothin' like that. Don' worry, miss. Mr. Vash is just sittin' there right yonder and I ain't dyin', now am I?" Hm. Well, there was that.   
"No...no you aren't. Sorry, I'll clean up the mess."   
"Sure thing ma'am. I'm much abliged."   
Stephes hopped down from the stool and whiped up the spittyed tea from the floor with a rag the barkeep handed to her and put it on the counter along with sufficient money for the drink, which she finished off promptly. "Thanks sir. By the way, isn't there anywhere to stay? I'm just arrived here, and I need a place to stay, but I don't know anyone, and I'm not on business errands, so..." The barkeep looked thoughtful. "Nope, sorry miss. Dunno anywhere you could stay. I'd let ya stay with me, now, but my little sleepin' place ain't fit for a fine and polite person like you. There's no darned room in there anyway. I wish I could help ya, but that's all I got." The man looked a little sad, and Stephes figured he meant it.   
"No, no! It's ok. I'll look elsewhere. Thanks, though." Stephes swung her pack over her shoulder and walked out, not noticing Vash stand up and follow.

It took Vash a moment to realize that the young woman had gone farther than he thought. "Gee, she walks fast." He scratched his head and walked a little faster, gaining up on the young woman because of his long legs and larger strides.   
The evening shadows grew longer as the twin suns sank below the horizon. Vash caught up with her and called out, "Hey, excuse me, miss?" She stopped and turned, and seemed a little suprised in the fading light. "Huh? Aren't you Vash?" Awkward moment. Vash drew himself up a bit. "Yes, yes I am." The woman seemed a little dazed, but recovered herself rather quickly. "Oh, I'm sorry, I was just--the thing is, its kind of odd being around Vash the Stampede. I heard rumors and other things around in towns near to this one, and well...I used to live in Augusta. They were away when you came screaming through the city, and of course I ran, because I was only fourteen--I'm eighteen now--and it was intuition or instinct, I guess. Some of us were far enough away but still close enough to see what happened. Five years before I was born, my parents lived in July, and they were just coming back from a visit to Little Jersey. They were thirty miles off when they saw what happened."

Through the entire speech Vash stayed silent, his face growing a little darker. "I'm sorry," was all he said. Stephes blinked in suprise. She knew this man was the real Vash, the man who destroyed her family's home twice. Obliterated, rather. An apology was hardly in order; she held no grudge. Stephes peered into Vash's face. It was so sad, so full of pain. She could almost see a mask flicker there, holding the expression of despair back from contorting the face of the tall, blonde man standing in front of her. "Mr. Vash there is no...no need for...Good lord, I don't want to mock you." She patted his shoulder. Awkward again.   
"I am sorry for being rude when you called on me. Is there anything I can do for you?"   
Vash seemed back to normal. The cover was so good it was hardly even fake. He laughed a little weakly and smiled. "The thing is, I heard you needed a place to stay. Our house has more than enough room. My brother's staying with us he's..." Vash paused for a moment, appearing slightly amused and frustrated at the same time. "He's a little sick. It's not contageous. I hope you don't mind." Stephes was more than glad, even with the sick brother deal.  
_Finally, a warm bed and a hot meal!_ A warm bed really did sound good; the desert night's chill started seeping through into her bones. Despite growing up here, there was something Stephes did not understand: _Why the HELL does it get so cold during the night and so hot during the day? It must be the lack of...something..._

Stephes' thoughts rattled at her, but she ignored them and walked towards the small house where Vash & Co. lived on the other side of town.

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Bwahaha! Yes, you may THINK this story is about Ms. Carlinya Stephes, but its NOT. You have NO-I-DE-A. cackle The sad thing is, neither do I. oO; When I first started writting this, Knives was more of the focus than anything else. I think he still is. Anyway, just wait til next time when I bring Stephes into the Strife/Millions/the Stampede/Wolfwood-household. And of course Millie and Nickie Jr. come back!! YAY. xD Please review! OO;


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